Wednesday, April 20, 2016
Quote
"In an historic first, U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts used sign language from the Supreme Court bench on Tuesday as he welcomed a dozen deaf and hard-of-hearing lawyers who took part in a ceremony authorizing them to argue cases before the court." [Reuters / Lawrence Hurley]
Tuesday, April 19, 2016
Amazon Echo
On sale today only.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2016/04/19/amazon-offers-one-day-sale-echo/83224644/
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2016/04/19/amazon-offers-one-day-sale-echo/83224644/
Newton's Laws
From The New Yorker -
I wish we could derive the rest of the phænomena of nature by the same kind of reasoning from mechanical principles.
—Sir Isaac Newton, “The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy”
LAW I: A body in motion will be kept in motion. A body at rest will be asked what its plans for the day are.
The First Law deals primarily with inertia—which is often mistakenly identified as “relaxing”—and the different ways one body can affect another inert (and perfectly content) body. Conversely, it states that a body in motion will be kept in motion with a list of errands, written on the back of an envelope, before that body “becomes one with the couch for the rest of the day,” which seems like an unnecessary characterization. Also known as “The Saturday Principle.”
An object at rest will not start moving unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. But definitely don’t use the word “unbalanced.” That will not work out well for the object. Also, any force that causes another body to transition from a state of inertia to “trying to maybe accomplish something today” technically can be measured by describing its magnitude and its direction, but never describe the force’s magnitude.
When an object in motion finally comes to rest (so many hours later than it wanted) and it becomes clear that the object has forgotten one item (I) that was written on the other side of the envelope (E), it will get zero (0) credit for the things it did remember, and for which it waited in traffic (T), thanks to a screw-up with Waze (W), we can say that (E – I)(T + W) = 0.
LAW II: The heavier the object, the greater the force needed to move it, especially if it refuses to move, in a misguided effort to make some kind of point.
The Second Law states that the heavier an object is physically, mentally, and emotionally, the more it is affected by inertia, and the more the object can expect to have that thrown in its face if, God forbid, the object refuses to get out of bed for three days after losing the only job the object ever loved.
The oppositional force provided by the inert object is affected not only by its literal mass—which increases due to forces of gravity, time, too much takeout, and low-grade depression—but also by its tendency to actively resist change. This tendency is either due to the constant and unreasonable nature of the forces acting on it, or a psychological aversion to being told what to do because of some weird thing with its dad, depending on who you ask.
The more opposition that is provided, the stronger the force required to overcome it, which often leads to mutual structural damage, also known as “saying things you can’t take back” and “slamming the silverware drawer so hard you break the soft-close feature.”
The inevitability of this law and its consequences may be expressed as the mathematical equation F = ML, where F = Fuck and ML = My Life.
LAW III: For every action there is an opposite and bewildering reaction.
The Third Law states that one object will always appear to have a completely disproportionate negative reaction to the action of the other. This is called the Out of Nowhere Fallacy, and is based on the illusion that reactions are responses only to the action at hand, rather than to every similar action that has occurred in all previous interactions between the two objects. This is often referred to as the Cumulative Fatigue with Your Bullshit Index.
Take, for example, an object in motion that tries to rest, just for a moment, to keep from crying in front of the kids, like that one time, and happens to audibly lock the bathroom door. While it seems mathematically impossible that this would cause a two-and-a-half-hour blowout fight, the reaction is appropriate when corrected for the fact that this brings up trust issues from the time the secret checking account was discovered, even though that was a million years ago, or 106 (y).
While far less common, an action can also cause an unexpected positive reaction. Consider an automobile travelling from a restaurant to a house: while the acceleration is affected by mass and external friction, it is also affected by forces inside the vehicle.
If two bodies are at rest inside—alone by a scheduling anomaly; held together by time, a mutual expansion of mass, and the indefinable constant of love—one body may notice something about the other body, like the way it pretends to know the words to the song on the radio, and it may take the other by the hand and smile and suggest a change of direction, because the sitter isn’t expecting them for an hour, and tonight, for once, neither body is pushing or pulling at all.
http://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/newtons-laws-of-marriage?mbid=nl_160419_Daily&CNDID=27124505&spMailingID=8810442&spUserID=MTE0MzE0NDEyNDUyS0&spJobID=902058505&spReportId=OTAyMDU4NTA1S0
Newton’s Laws of Marriage
BY JOHN QUAINTANCE
I wish we could derive the rest of the phænomena of nature by the same kind of reasoning from mechanical principles.
—Sir Isaac Newton, “The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy”
LAW I: A body in motion will be kept in motion. A body at rest will be asked what its plans for the day are.
The First Law deals primarily with inertia—which is often mistakenly identified as “relaxing”—and the different ways one body can affect another inert (and perfectly content) body. Conversely, it states that a body in motion will be kept in motion with a list of errands, written on the back of an envelope, before that body “becomes one with the couch for the rest of the day,” which seems like an unnecessary characterization. Also known as “The Saturday Principle.”
An object at rest will not start moving unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. But definitely don’t use the word “unbalanced.” That will not work out well for the object. Also, any force that causes another body to transition from a state of inertia to “trying to maybe accomplish something today” technically can be measured by describing its magnitude and its direction, but never describe the force’s magnitude.
When an object in motion finally comes to rest (so many hours later than it wanted) and it becomes clear that the object has forgotten one item (I) that was written on the other side of the envelope (E), it will get zero (0) credit for the things it did remember, and for which it waited in traffic (T), thanks to a screw-up with Waze (W), we can say that (E – I)(T + W) = 0.
LAW II: The heavier the object, the greater the force needed to move it, especially if it refuses to move, in a misguided effort to make some kind of point.
The Second Law states that the heavier an object is physically, mentally, and emotionally, the more it is affected by inertia, and the more the object can expect to have that thrown in its face if, God forbid, the object refuses to get out of bed for three days after losing the only job the object ever loved.
The oppositional force provided by the inert object is affected not only by its literal mass—which increases due to forces of gravity, time, too much takeout, and low-grade depression—but also by its tendency to actively resist change. This tendency is either due to the constant and unreasonable nature of the forces acting on it, or a psychological aversion to being told what to do because of some weird thing with its dad, depending on who you ask.
The more opposition that is provided, the stronger the force required to overcome it, which often leads to mutual structural damage, also known as “saying things you can’t take back” and “slamming the silverware drawer so hard you break the soft-close feature.”
The inevitability of this law and its consequences may be expressed as the mathematical equation F = ML, where F = Fuck and ML = My Life.
LAW III: For every action there is an opposite and bewildering reaction.
The Third Law states that one object will always appear to have a completely disproportionate negative reaction to the action of the other. This is called the Out of Nowhere Fallacy, and is based on the illusion that reactions are responses only to the action at hand, rather than to every similar action that has occurred in all previous interactions between the two objects. This is often referred to as the Cumulative Fatigue with Your Bullshit Index.
Take, for example, an object in motion that tries to rest, just for a moment, to keep from crying in front of the kids, like that one time, and happens to audibly lock the bathroom door. While it seems mathematically impossible that this would cause a two-and-a-half-hour blowout fight, the reaction is appropriate when corrected for the fact that this brings up trust issues from the time the secret checking account was discovered, even though that was a million years ago, or 106 (y).
While far less common, an action can also cause an unexpected positive reaction. Consider an automobile travelling from a restaurant to a house: while the acceleration is affected by mass and external friction, it is also affected by forces inside the vehicle.
If two bodies are at rest inside—alone by a scheduling anomaly; held together by time, a mutual expansion of mass, and the indefinable constant of love—one body may notice something about the other body, like the way it pretends to know the words to the song on the radio, and it may take the other by the hand and smile and suggest a change of direction, because the sitter isn’t expecting them for an hour, and tonight, for once, neither body is pushing or pulling at all.
http://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/newtons-laws-of-marriage?mbid=nl_160419_Daily&CNDID=27124505&spMailingID=8810442&spUserID=MTE0MzE0NDEyNDUyS0&spJobID=902058505&spReportId=OTAyMDU4NTA1S0
OUCH!
An excerpt from The Wrap -
‘Nina’ Review: Zoe Saldana, What Happened to Your Miss Simone Biopic?
Miscast and misbegotten, this catastrophic biopic plays like a sketch-comedy version of a bad movie about a legendary performer
“Nina,” an infuriatingly amateurish picture about the great singer and pianist Nina Simone, is a new low for the musical biopic genre. First time writer-director Cynthia Mort, whose main experience is as a writer on the sitcoms “Roseanne” and “Will & Grace,” unforgivably exploits Simone’s memory and name with a movie that plays like a sketch comedy parody of the worst possible Nina Simone biopic. No one involved seems to have a clue who Simone was or what she stood for.
http://www.thewrap.com/nina-review-zoe-saldana-nina-simone/
Will This Work at Keeping Kitty Off the Counter?
http://ovens.reviewed.com/news/this-kitty-friendly-kitchen-is-purr-fect-for-cat-owners?utm_source=Reviewed+Newsletter&utm_campaign=ea30dd300d-Newsletter_10_1_1410_1_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_6f226ffe23-ea30dd300d-96781213
Monday, April 18, 2016
Tainted Success
From 2Paragraphs -
‘Ebony and Ivy’ — The Book That Exposed University Ties To Slavery
Schools + Money
From NPR -
http://www.npr.org/2016/04/18/474256366/why-americas-schools-have-a-money-problem?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Vox%20Sentences%204/18/16&utm_term=Vox%20Newsletter%20All
Why America's Schools Have A Money Problem
http://www.npr.org/2016/04/18/474256366/why-americas-schools-have-a-money-problem?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Vox%20Sentences%204/18/16&utm_term=Vox%20Newsletter%20All
How To You Know You're in Love?
From The Atlantic -
http://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/478098/how-do-you-know-when-youre-in-love/
http://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/478098/how-do-you-know-when-youre-in-love/
Tokyo Subway
An excerpt from The Washington Post -
Nine things about the Tokyo subway that will drive Washington commuters crazy
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/04/18/nine-things-about-the-tokyo-subway-that-will-drive-washington-commuters-crazy/?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories-2_tokyo-557am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory
Nine things about the Tokyo subway that will drive Washington commuters crazy
TOKYO — Hey Washington commuters, we know you’ve got it tough there. We heard about the delays and the outages and the safety problems and all that, and we don’t mean to rub it in. We just thought you might be interested in seeing how a subway system can work well.
So take a look at how it’s done in Tokyo, where the population in the greater metropolis is 38 million and accommodates more than 8 million passengers a day. One station alone — Shinjuku — sees an average of 3.64 million passengers going through it each day, making it the world’s busiest station, as certified by the Guinness Book of Records. Shinjuku has more than 200 exits and even has its own app just to help people get around the station.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/04/18/nine-things-about-the-tokyo-subway-that-will-drive-washington-commuters-crazy/?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories-2_tokyo-557am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory
Sunday, April 17, 2016
Get Your Eyes Examined Online
Excerpts from USA Today -
You can get eyeglass and contact prescriptions online now
But just as surely as Uber upended the taxi industry and Amazon changed book-buying habits, there’s now a company hoping to turn vision testing into an online routine requiring nothing but a computer and a smartphone. Opternative, based in Chicago, has been offering free exams through its website since July 2015. About 40,000 people in 32 states have taken the tests, says CEO and co-founder Aaron Dallek.
~~~~~~~~~~
Opternative promises the prescriptions within 24 hours and says they can be used to buy eyeglasses or contacts anywhere, online or in stores.The site does not sell glasses and contacts directly. Right now, it offers prescriptions only to consumers ages 18 to 40. Charges are not covered by insurers but are close to the average $52 that the Vision Council says consumers pay out of pocket for traditional exams.
~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2016/04/17/online-eye-exams-prescriptions/82892026/
https://www.opternative.com/online-eye-exams
You can get eyeglass and contact prescriptions online now
But just as surely as Uber upended the taxi industry and Amazon changed book-buying habits, there’s now a company hoping to turn vision testing into an online routine requiring nothing but a computer and a smartphone. Opternative, based in Chicago, has been offering free exams through its website since July 2015. About 40,000 people in 32 states have taken the tests, says CEO and co-founder Aaron Dallek.
~~~~~~~~~~
Opternative promises the prescriptions within 24 hours and says they can be used to buy eyeglasses or contacts anywhere, online or in stores.The site does not sell glasses and contacts directly. Right now, it offers prescriptions only to consumers ages 18 to 40. Charges are not covered by insurers but are close to the average $52 that the Vision Council says consumers pay out of pocket for traditional exams.
~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2016/04/17/online-eye-exams-prescriptions/82892026/
https://www.opternative.com/online-eye-exams
We All Lie
Excerpts from the AP -
We all lie, scientists say, but politicians even more so
Deception starts early.
Children learn to lie at an average of about 3 years old, often when they realize that other people don't know what they are thinking, said Kang Lee, a professor at the University of Toronto.
He has done extensive research on children and lying. Lee set up an experiment in a video-monitored room and would tell children there's a toy they can have that's behind them, but they can only get it if they don't peek. Then the adult is called out of the room, returns a minute later and asks if they peeked.
At age 2, only 30 percent lie, Lee said. At age 3, half do. By 5 or 6, 90 percent of the kids lie and Lee said he worries about the 10 percent who don't. This is universal, Lee said.
A little later, "we explicitly teach our kids to tell white lies," with parental coaching about things like saying how much they love gifts from grandma, and it's a lesson most of them only get around age 6 or older, Lee said.
~~~~~~~~~~
The problem is there are many shades of truth-bending. Experts split on whether to count white lies — what psychologist and political scientist Stanley Renshon calls "social lubrication" that makes civilized operate. When your spouse tells you that you don't look fat in that outfit when you do, does it really do any harm?
"There's a difference between white lies and real lies," Renshon said.
Some lies, said Schweitzer, "fall under politeness norms and are not very harmful. There are other lies that are self-interested and those are the ones that are really harmful. Those are the ones that harm relationships, harm trust."
But others, like DePaolo, see no distinction: "It doesn't matter if the attempt was motivated by good intentions and it doesn't matter if the lie is about something little."
Regardless, society rewards people for white lies, Feldman said.
"We're really trained to be deceptive," Feldman said. "If we're not, if we're totally truthful all the time that's not a good thing, there's a price to be paid for that. We don't like people who tell us the truth all the time.
http://bigstory.ap.org/urn:publicid:ap.org:c8efe2bb8bfc4e6eabcae0ed259a99b0
Watch This 2
I just watched HBO's Confirmation, the reenactment of the 1991 Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill Senate Judiciary Hearings on sexual harassment that came up in the process of confirming Thomas as the next Supreme Court judge.
Watch this.
It was amazing!
It revealed the "win at any cost" mentality that is still very much alive and well in our political world today.
If the actual hearing was anything close to what was portrayed, what a sham it was.
The courage it took for Anita Hill to do what she did was extraordinary, and considering the beating she took as a result of coming forth; it's no wonder she didn't say anything for ten years. She knew what she would be up against, and sure enough, the "he said / she said" accusations were probably far greater, far nastier, and far more contentious than she could have ever conjured up.
Side note - I wonder if Joe Biden has seen this. His behavior as chairman of the hearing was appalling. He was weak and ineffective at reigning in the crazies, if he even tried. I'm guessing he wishes he had a do-over.
I don't know how anyone could doubt that Thomas did what he was accused of.
This man was guilty then, and he's guilty now.
The timing of this movie couldn't be more apropos with the looming confirmation of President Obama's nominee that the Senate is refusing to even consider.
The puppets of the gerry-rigging that happened in 1991, are still at work in 2016.
What a scam.
What a shame.
~~~~~~~~~~
You might also be interested in "The Washington That Failed Anita Hill" at the link below.
https://newrepublic.com/article/132761/washington-failed-anita-hill
Watch this.
It was amazing!
It revealed the "win at any cost" mentality that is still very much alive and well in our political world today.
If the actual hearing was anything close to what was portrayed, what a sham it was.
The courage it took for Anita Hill to do what she did was extraordinary, and considering the beating she took as a result of coming forth; it's no wonder she didn't say anything for ten years. She knew what she would be up against, and sure enough, the "he said / she said" accusations were probably far greater, far nastier, and far more contentious than she could have ever conjured up.
Side note - I wonder if Joe Biden has seen this. His behavior as chairman of the hearing was appalling. He was weak and ineffective at reigning in the crazies, if he even tried. I'm guessing he wishes he had a do-over.
I don't know how anyone could doubt that Thomas did what he was accused of.
This man was guilty then, and he's guilty now.
The timing of this movie couldn't be more apropos with the looming confirmation of President Obama's nominee that the Senate is refusing to even consider.
The puppets of the gerry-rigging that happened in 1991, are still at work in 2016.
What a scam.
What a shame.
~~~~~~~~~~
You might also be interested in "The Washington That Failed Anita Hill" at the link below.
https://newrepublic.com/article/132761/washington-failed-anita-hill
Saturday, April 16, 2016
Grandmaster
From the AP -
Chess' 1st African-American grandmaster enters Hall of Fame
NEW YORK (AP) — Maurice Ashley was 14 when he saw a high school friend playing chess and challenged him to a match. He lost badly, but it sparked a love affair that started him playing nearly non-stop ever since.
There were the countless hours competing against the hustlers in city parks, and the serious players at chess clubs in Manhattan. There were the years spent against increasingly tougher competition in college, and ultimately against the best of the best at tournaments around the country and abroad.
All that playing has led the 50-year-old Ashley to some trailblazing accomplishments — the first African-American to be designated as a chess grandmaster, and last Wednesday, the first African-American to be inducted into the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame in St. Louis. He received his honor as the U.S. Chess Championship got underway, with Ashley taking on commentating duties.
http://bigstory.ap.org/urn:publicid:ap.org:afa475649a7443c2a2fcb49a36a1cb83
Quote
If Trump wins the election it'll be the first
time in history that a billionaire moved into
public housing vacated by a black family!
- Anonymous
H/T Forrest
time in history that a billionaire moved into
public housing vacated by a black family!
- Anonymous
H/T Forrest
Shocking: Hospital Refunds!
An excerpt from The Wahington Post -
The most unexpected hospital billing development ever: Refunds
DANVILLE, Pa. — At Geisinger Health System in Pennsylvania, hospital officials want to keep their customers happy. So when patients are upset about a long wait in the emergency department, or a doctor’s brusque manner, or a meal that never arrived in a room, Geisinger is doing more than apologizing.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/2016/04/14/207cb934-fd95-11e5-886f-a037dba38301_story.html?wpisrc=nl_rainbow
The most unexpected hospital billing development ever: Refunds
DANVILLE, Pa. — At Geisinger Health System in Pennsylvania, hospital officials want to keep their customers happy. So when patients are upset about a long wait in the emergency department, or a doctor’s brusque manner, or a meal that never arrived in a room, Geisinger is doing more than apologizing.
It’s offering money back on their care, no questions asked.
The hospital system is the first in the country to adopt what has long been a basic tenet of retail business: customer refunds. This focus on customer satisfaction is a relatively new concept for health care, in which doctors have typically called the shots. And it’s one that Geisinger’s staff questioned when president and chief executive David Feinberg came up with the refund idea last fall.
But the novel approach is in keeping with health care’s shift to improve the experience of patients. Under the Affordable Care Act, government payments are increasingly tied to the quality of care and patient satisfaction as opposed to the quantity of services provided.
“We want to make sure we not only have the right care that is high quality and safe, but we also want to make sure our care is compassionate, dignified and delivered with a lot of kindness,” said Feinberg, who took over Geisinger last May after running the UCLA health system.
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